Discussions from a graduating Master's student on items including life in the Upper Midwest, the dismal science, and brilliant beverages.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

WMC has no shame and no integrity, and must be shunned

I’ve frequently criticized the Mediocre Businessmen’s Club that is known publicly as Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) on this page and other places. These a-holes have spent millions of dollars of their profits over the last decade to get Republicans elected at all levels in this state, and are the group most responsible for putting a partisan, crooked majority in place at the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Despite getting everything they want from the stooges they install in office, such as right-to-work (for less) legislation and tax giveaways and WEDC handouts that create no jobs, the greedheads at WMC still want more, and continue to interfere and control far too much of the state’s politics.

One sign of how ideological the WMC has become is its lobbyist Lucas Vebber, who was hired by the group after spending nearly three years as an aide to Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. Vebber did a series of tweets dumping on Mayor Tom Barrett which were so inflammatory that Right Wisconsin packaged them into a story. Vebber’s attack might have made sense if he was still serving the GOP caucus, but seems ill-advised for someone serving a group trying to get support from all political leaders in the state for business priorities. Barrett works regularly with the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce and many business leaders in Milwaukee probably wouldn’t appreciate Vebber’s diatribe.

Vebber popped up in the news again today, in a rather bizarre story published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The headline, “Judge’s donations spark controversy,” is rather overstated, if not downright silly. The big controversy is over a $50 donation — I kid you not — that Dane County Circuit Court John W. Markson made to the environmental group Clean Wisconsin. Markson made a ruling favoring Clean Wisconsin’s position, that the state DNR must impose conditions on the expansion of Kinnard Farms (which is adding more than 2,000 cattle at its farm in Kewaunee County) in order to safeguard water resources.

Markson’s ruling came last July and it has been public knowledge since December 2015 that he has made annual contributions of $50 to Clean Wisconsin. Any “controversy” that arose was contained in a column by the right-wing Media Trackers group back in July, which hasn’t gotten any traction. But on Friday [September 30] Markson made a ruling that the DNR should pay Clean Wisconsin and Midwest Environmental Advocates for their legal fees, which prompted the Journal Sentinel to write this story….

But there was one person who found this controversial. Lucas Vebber, who emailed this salvo to the newspaper: “It wasn’t enough for Judge Markson to refuse to recuse himself when it came out that he was helping to fund (a) radical environmental organization that had a case before him…These actions raise significant questions about the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary, and they cannot be allowed to stand.”…

This objection, moreover, is by the group that wrote the rule adopted by the Wisconsin Supreme Court that opened the door to justices refusing to recuse no matter how large a campaign contribution they received. Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce spent millions of dollars on campaign donations to elect Justices Michael Gableman, David Prosser, Annette Ziegler and Pat Roggensack, then convinced them to support a recusal rule that is nationally notable for its lax standards, and then benefitted from the decision by these justices to refuse to recuse and rule in favor of killing a John Doe probe of illegal campaign coordination by the WMC and other defendants. Yet the WMC is outraged that a circuit court judge gave $50 to an environmental group.

And by the way, why is donating to an environmental group considered a partisan thing in the first place? That sounds like “a you problem” for WMC/WisGOP, not the judge’s problem.

The ad from Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce’s political advocacy arm has run since late last month and criticizes Winnebago County Executive Mark Harris for proposing a 3-cent gas tax increase to generate money for road projects in lieu of borrowing. It also urges people to call Harris and tell him that his liberal tax policies are bringing families down.

Harris told Wisconsin Eye, the state’s version of C-SPAN, last month that he wants the tax increase because borrowing will cost the state more in the long run. Harris’ opponent in the 18th Senate District race, Republican Dan Feyen of Fond du Lac, told Wisconsin Eye in July that he would be open to a 5-cent gas tax increase.

A modest gas tax increase was among the things floated on the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce’s website by President Kurt Bauer in December 2014 in lieu of borrowing for roads, as well as raising vehicle registration fees.

“WMC is attacking a Democrat for supporting the same policy that they do, and that his opponent does,” said Scot Ross, executive director of liberal group One Wisconsin Now. “There is no explanation for this dishonesty other than they are more interested in electing Republican politicians than advancing an issue agenda.”

Exactly right, Scot. WMC is nothing more than a GOP front group- or is the GOP a front group for the oligarchs at WMC? I’m having a hard time telling which group is calling the shots here.

It’s well past time that WMC and its members pay a heavy price for the poisonous damage their organization has inflicted onto Wisconsin politics and everyday life. So let me give you this list of the members of WMC’s officers and Board of Directors, and make them pay what they have allowed. I admit, this won’t be easy (I have an Associated Bank account that my paycheck goes into, although I try to keep it relatively low so they can’t make any money loaning out my funds), but hitting these overwhelmingly mediocre white businessMEN in the pocketbook is the only way these scumbags will consider backing off, and stop messing up our state so much.

PS- See Todd Wanek of Ashley Furniture on that list? He's given big money WMC's "issues mobilization" organization to run ads to get GOPs elected, along with tens of thousands of dollars to the campaign of Governor Scott Walker- with combined contributions that are well over $100,000. And the John Doe docs also showed that Wanek was part of a group of oligarchs that sat in on a WMC-arranged conference call with Gov Scott Walker in December 2011 to discuss "recall-related polling and strategy" (a call that took place during Walker's regular work schedule. Where was Scotty calling in from?). Oh hey! Look at where Scott Walker was yesterday, attending a ribbon-cutting commemorating Ashley Furniture’s remodeling of its Arcadia headquarters. Amazing how that stuff works out, doesn't it?

You're welcome. Giving our money to real job creators and not the slime that make up WMC is one of the few options we have at this time. Well, barring an uprising at the ballot box in 27 days, of course (which is badly needed), and where politicians pay a price for being puppets of WMC.

As you mention Greg, these guys don't want new ideas and competition, and then they whine about how they can't find workers and that the talent base is drying up.

About Me

This cat's a 40-something libation-enjoying gabber still trying to do the right thing. Watch his crazy adventures as he works and stumbles his way through the great world of public service in the Age of Fitzwalkerstan, while keeping tabs on Bucky Badger and the next Great Depression. I'm told I'm big in Oshkosh.